In easy to understand words what does separated fragment in the inferior-most portion of the medial epincondylar epiphysis mean?

Answer 1

It depends which bone you are referring to.

The epiphysis is the rounded end of a bone. The neck is called the metaphysis, and the middle is called the diaphysis. This is the same on both ends, so a long bone (that's a category of bone, like the femur or humerus) has two epiphyses, two metaphyses and one diaphysis.

'Inferior-most' refers to the 'most-below', or 'nearest-to-the-floor'. If you are trying to work out whether something is inferior to something else, you must imagine that you are standing upright, with your feet facing forwards, and you arms by your sides - palms facing the front. Your head is facing forwards. This is called the anatomical position, and you must always imagine the patient is standing like this. Inferior is the opposite of superior.

Medial, refers to 'nearest-to-the-midline'. Medial is the opposite of lateral. The midline is an imaginary line drawn right down from the top of the head, through the middle of the eyes, and nose, and mouth, belly button, and between the feet - in the anatomical position.

An epicondyle is usually a protrusion at the end of a bone, usually the distal end (which in the case of the femur and the humerus, is the inferior end). The protrusions are on the sides, so one sticks out medially (medial epicondyle), one laterally (lateral epicondyle).

So in answer to your question, a separated fragment in the inferior-most portion of the medial epicondylar epiphysis of the femur would be in English (!):

- a little bit of bone that has broken off the femur.

- it has broken off the bit that sticks out on the medial side (i.e. the side that faces the other knee) of the femur. You should be able to feel it, it's roughly in line with your kneecap.

- Basically, you're missing a bit of the head of your femur at the bottom end.

a separated fragment in the inferior-most portion of the medial epicondylar epiphysis of the humerus:

- Place your arms by your sides, palms facing forwards.

- A bit of bone has broken off the bit that sticks out of the side of your elbow, nearest to your body.

- It's in line with the inside crease of your elbow (if you were looking down at the inside crease of your left elbow, it'd be on the right).

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Hope this helps!

-Qu.mstr

Note: If you like, you could Google the individual terms: 'inferior', 'medial', 'epicondyle', 'epiphysis'.